Article
Family caregiving of persons with dementia – a concept analysis
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Authors
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Simon Krutter
- Institute of Nursing Science and Practice, Paracelsus Medical University
| Published: | April 30, 2018 |
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Outline
Text
Background: As relatives are a majority of informal caregivers of community-dwelling people with dementia, nurses are in the pivotal position to provide care to both family members. An adequate understanding of how family carers perceive and define caregiving is required for effective nursing interventions. Research has found that family caregivers do not discuss their caregiving in terms of tasks, but instead, emphasise their concerns, commitments and purpose of caring. There is, however, a lack of clarity about the meaning of this concept.
Purpose: To identify existing definitions of family caregiving of persons with dementia and determine the characteristic aspects of this concept.
Design: Concept analysis according to Walker und Avant.
Methods: A search is carried out in the databases CINAHL, PubMed and PsycINFO to access relevant articles published between 1995 and 2016. ‘Family caregiving’, ‘informal caregiver’ and ‘dementia’ serve as keywords. To be included, publications have to meet one of the following criteria: it has to be the opinion of an expert, a theoretical work dealing with the concept of ‘family caregiving of persons with dementia’, qualitative research aimed to describe caregiving from the caregiver´s perspective or it is a survey providing a definition of this concept.
Results: The concept analysis is currently in the stage of analysis. Results will be presented at the conference.
Conclusions: Exploring the caregiving concept guides nurses to systematically understand the perspective of family caregivers of people with dementia. Findings can be used to develop targeted nursing interventions aimed to support caregivers and improve the quality of life of people with dementia.
